Personal Game thoughts, Spurs @ Raptors.

[Chieflion]

Disclaimer: Again, if you disagree on my opinions, feel free to comment. I know it is very lengthy, bear with my rant. If you want to see the entire boxscore:
http://www.nba.com/games/20100103/SA...t2hp0020900491

The Starters: Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess, Theo Ratliff, Keith Bogans, Tony Parker.

On Richard Jefferson: RJ had 12 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal. He shot 5 of 10 from the field, 0 for 2 from three point range and 2 of 2 from the FT line. I thought Jefferson deferred a little too much this game, especially when Duncan sat the entire 1st quarter. His counterpart, Antoine Wright, arguably had a better game than him, which is a sad thing. RJ seemed to have lost his fire in this Raptors game, played soft defense, lets hope it is just the cold weather freezing him up. He also played a team leading 37 minutes and 54 seconds.

On Antonio McDyess: Statlines do not reflect how weak he played. His mind seemed to have floated off somewhere else. Dice had 2 points, 4 rebounds. He shot 1 of 6 from the field in 18 minutes and 8 seconds of gametime. Dice looked completely lost out there after being moved into the starting lineup. He played off the bench in the past few games and was money with the jumper, now he seemed to blow. He failed to get himself open and set screens properly and almost singlehandedly gave away momentum to the Raptors with his fouls and misses.

On Theo Ratliff: Not much needs to be said about Theo Ratliff who only played 8 minutes and 28 seconds. Theo shot 0 for 1 from the field, and dished out one assist. Defensively, he did not do that well and was average in the 1st minutes of the ball game he played and was clearly a non-factor on offense.

On Keith Bogans: One of the brighter spots in the loss against the Raptors. His defensive effort was always there. During the last minutes of the game, when he got switched on to Bosh, Bogans was there to deny Bosh the ball with his hustle and effort. He was also the guy out there harassing Jarrett Jack all 94 feet of the basketball court during the final minutes. However, he had problems with DeMar DeRozan flying all over the place with his athletic ability and pure talent. Bogans hit 2 three pointers on 3 attempts and missed all his other 3 two point shots, including one at the rim which I thought he got fouled on. Bogans also had 3 steals, more credit to his defense, with 2 rebounds and an assist to boot.

On Tony Parker: He was fantastic when he touched the ball at least. In the 1st quarter, he was brilliant. Nothing else could be said. If I remembeer correctly, he had 14 of the Spurs' 19 points in the 1st quarter. Parker's offense practically saved the Spurs from having a single digit scoring 1st quarter. Although he scored only 5 points in the 2nd half, I thought he should have gotten the ball more.

The bench: DeJuan Blair, Manu Ginobili, Roger Mason Jr, George Hill, Tim Duncan

On DeJuan Blair: Blair played 18 minutes and 29 seconds. Blair shot 4 of 7 from the field and scored 8 points. He also grabbed 6 rebounds. He missed both his FT attempts. For some weird reason, Blair was relegated to the bench despite his recent play for Antonio McDyess. Blair still played hard in his minutes, but was also thrown off course as he racked up for 4 fouls, 3 of which are offensive fouls, crediting him with 3 turnovers and stopping all momentum when the Spurs were trying to make a run. He made rookie mistakes and we hope he can cut down on these in the near future.

On Manu Ginobili: Manu has been less than stellar after his near triple double circus act and did not do that well. Manu scored 7 points on 2 of 9 shooting, missed all 3 of his 3-point attempts. He did hit all 3 all of his free throws. Manu still had his impact by rebounding the ball 7 times and dishing out 4 key assists. Manu also played 30 minutes and 38 seconds when he is ill and assisted his illnesses to half the team.

On Roger Mason Jr: After carrying the Spurs offense in the Wizards game, Mason scored 5 points by hitting a three and making all two of his free throws. Mason played not so smart and I was disappointed by his lack of common sense, attempting two behind the back passes (none of them succeeded when it is such a close game. He took some good shots though, unfortunately he missed.

On George Hill: Oh man, George Hill, we really need you to wake up. You have been in a slump for the past few games. For a player averaging 24.1 minutes a game, Hill only played 11 minutes and 18 seconds because of Mason's increased minutes. Hill had 2 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists. He shot 1 of 4 from the field and 0 for 1 from three. Hill noticeably began to suck on defense, getting burned by Marcus Banks on numerous occasions. As the only backup point guard of the Spurs, I expect Hill to play better in the upcoming games.

On Tim Duncan: In case you have been wondering where he was in the writeup, Tim Duncan got benched by Pop in the entire 1st quarter and came off the bench. Tim Duncan's stats looked like the usual 21 points and 12 rebounds, the numbers we have been used to seeing. However, he choked in the clutch and missed 3 free throws in the clutch. The Tim Duncan who improved so much from the FT line this season was 5 of 9 from the FT line and was 8 of 22 from the field. Tim could not get past the defense of Andrea Bargnani and even got beat by Bargnani on the dribble for the reverse dunk. For Duncan, this indeed is a game he would like to forget about. Tim also made an incredibly stupid play by jumping into Jack with milliseconds left on the shot clock in the 2nd quarter and gave Jack 3 free throws when he was like 37 feet away from the hoop.

On Gregg Popovich: In case you didn't watch the game, Pop's gametime decisions confused everyone in the basketball world by benching Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair (his entire PF/C frontline) and started Theo, who rarely plays and McDyess. After the 1st quarter, everyone thought Tim was not going to play, then he entered the court after the team dug itself into a 12 point deficit. Pop's shocking decisions left his players confused as players like Dice and RJ, the new guys on the team, had no idea what Pop was trying to do. The loss certainly did not help Pop's case either. Pop also failed to get the white-hot Tony Parker open looks to attack and score to create for everyone else.

[HarlemHeat37]

nice thoughts, agree with most of them, if not all..

I thought pretty much the entire team had no energy at all and walked through this game, especially the older guys..

Duncan looked like he wanted to get the game over with and lacked focus/rhythm for this game..he shouldn't have played IMO..despite what Pop says, I'm assuming he was going to sit him with the thought that we would beat the Raptors anyways, but then saw how we were struggling and put him in..it would make sense considering we beat them without Duncan and Parker last time..plan failed..

Parker was great, only guy that came out to play..

Manu and RJ didn't look into this game..

Bogans gave a decent effort, but I continue to be concerned with his defense vs. athletic players..he has struggled to keep guys like that in front of him this season..

Blair was Blair..shows flashes of good play mixed in with bonehead rookie mistakes..

Mason was fine other than the stupid passes..he didn't look into it either..he was taking good shots though, he was just missing, which happens..

the only guys that really disappointed me were Hill and McDyess..they just played very poorly in every way..

[TJastal]

Last game vs Raptors the refs basically had the raptors' hands tied behind their backs and the spurs benefitted big-time. That's how it was such a lopsided win with Tim and Tony out.

New meeting, new set of refs, new players in raptors rotation (white players Turkoglu and Calderon out, black players Meeks, Deroza and Jack in) and its a totally different scenario.

But one doesn't even need to recognize this, all one has to do is look at the way they have been playing recently and the fact they are in front of their home crowd and Pop should have realized this was NOT going to be a easy victory.

[Chieflion]

Last game vs Raptors the refs basically had the raptors' hands tied behind their backs and the spurs benefitted big-time. That's how it was such a lopsided win with Tim and Tony out.

New meeting, new set of refs, new players in raptors rotation (white players Turkoglu and Calderon out, black players Meeks, Deroza and Jack in) and its a totally different scenario.

But one doesn't even need to recognize this, all one has to do is look at the way they have been playing recently and the fact they are in front of their home crowd and Pop should have realized this was NOT going to be a easy victory.

I actually like this group of refs. I haven't seen one noticeable ty biased call.

[Jason R]

I thought the reffing was bad, but generally just thought we looked tired.

[FromWayDowntown]

Obviously, the biggest problem is the 1:31 that Blair came up short of the magical 20 minute mark.

Sweeping 6 games in 9 nights, no matter the compe ion, is a tall order for any team. Undoubtedly, Pop's wavering on resting Duncan and the consequent distortion of player rotations that had begun to develop a bit of rhythm certainly doesn't help.

I think we've learned that McDyess is most comfortable coming off the bench, and I'd expect him to return immediately to that role.

[gm5k]

I don't have any stats to back this up, but reading what you said about TP reminds me of some games in the past. sometimes it seems like TP scoring the bulk of our points early can often be a bad thing, because by the second half when he needs help no one is in any kind of rhythm.

they've all just been standing around while TP schools kids. I usually get worried when I see this happen with TP in a first quarter/half. I'm not sure if this is what happened in this game as I didn't get to watch it. just a thought

[TJastal]

Obviously, the biggest problem is the 1:31 that Blair came up short of the magical 20 minute mark.

Sweeping 6 games in 9 nights, no matter the compe ion, is a tall order for any team. Undoubtedly, Pop's wavering on resting Duncan and the consequent distortion of player rotations that had begun to develop a bit of rhythm certainly doesn't help.

I think we've learned that McDyess is most comfortable coming off the bench, and I'd expect him to return immediately to that role.

He did say that a few weeks ago, hence the move to start Blair. Not like its something we didn't know.

[Chieflion]

I don't have any stats to back this up, but reading what you said about TP reminds me of some games in the past. sometimes it seems like TP scoring the bulk of our points early can often be a bad thing, because by the second half when he needs help no one is in any kind of rhythm.

they've all just been standing around while TP schools kids. I usually get worried when I see this happen with TP in a first quarter/half. I'm not sure if this is what happened in this game as I didn't get to watch it. just a thought

Nope, I forgot to mention this but the reason why Duncan even shot 22 times was because we basically ran 4 down on every single possession in the 2nd half with Duncan. Since he took the bulk of the shots, no one also dared to shoot . They left their balls in the Canada customs.

[gm5k]

Nope, I forgot to mention this but the reason why Duncan even shot 22 times was because we basically ran 4 down on every single possession in the 2nd half with Duncan. Since he took the bulk of the shots, no one also dared to shoot . They left their balls in the Canada customs.

gotcha. and that wasn't an attack on Parker, only an observation of some past games. I'd much rather TP have 5 assists in the first half than 20 points

it's really tough to watch the Spurs when they're all afraid to shoot the rock. you won't see another team in the NBA pass up 5 wide open shots in 1 possession but I suppose that's also what makes us great when we're great, our unselfishness. at least on the offensive end. just need a better ratio of cojones to unselfishness

[FromWayDowntown]

He did say that a few weeks ago, hence the move to start Blair. Not like its something we didn't know.

It also makes sense to me that if you're intending to sit Duncan, you might figure that McDyess/Blair doesn't give you any real length on the defensive end and that playing Ratliff becomes reasonable. And if you're going to play Ratliff and Blair, you have virtually no offense out of your bigs.

So, if you go into the game with a plan to sit Duncan, I can see where you'd end up starting Ratliff and McDyess, no matter what had been going on before the game.

Like I say, I agree that the decision to sit Duncan only to subsequently play him is curious; but with that decision having been made in the first instance, I get why Pop started the guys that he did.

[TJastal]

It also makes sense to me that if you're intending to sit Duncan, you might figure that McDyess/Blair doesn't give you any real length on the defensive end and that playing Ratliff becomes reasonable. And if you're going to play Ratliff and Blair, you have virtually no offense out of your bigs.

So, if you go into the game with a plan to sit Duncan, I can see where you'd end up starting Ratliff and McDyess, no matter what had been going on before the game.

Like I say, I agree that the decision to sit Duncan only to subsequently play him is curious; but with that decision having been made in the first instance, I get why Pop started the guys that he did.

I disagree.

Pop should have just used a small ball starting lineup w/ 1 big. Something like Ratliff/Jefferson/Mason/Bogans/Parker. Jefferson could have guarded Bargnani easily.

Putting McDyess and Ratliff out there to start a game was just asking for problems. First of all both are new and not totally comfortable with the spurs' system. And neither one is a low post player and both were totally confused what to do out there, both trying to initiate the high pick and roll. It was predictably a complete disaster. They looked like they were fighting over who was going to set the pick at times.

Even a Blair/Ratliff or Blair/McDyess starting lineup would have been better, cuz at least you'd have 1 guy with a low post game to play the low block and not two guys trying to do the same thing.

[raspsa]

One of the TV commemtators opined that RJ was deferring too much to the Big 3 and he should become more assertive.. he is an important piece of the puzzle and he really needs to get over any reticence about his role on the SPurs.. got to be a bit selfish, specially when others sre off like Manu was tonight.

[Brazil]

Thanks Chieflon ! nice read really.

What surprised me the most during this game is why the spurs didn't take advantage more of TP good night. Tim was cold but took 22 shots and TP was damn hot but took only 11 !

Seriously I really like the way TP is changing his game but in that game he should have realized he needed to take over in the second half.

[polandprzem]

If the spurs would win nobody would blame Pop for bringing new frontiline to the starting 5.
There was absolutely no energy by the spurs players. And again they blew it on a b2b game where somebody said thay are good
And btw. Raps also wee on a b2b game which shows that other teams can deal with that better then the spurs.
It was great chance for the spurs to get the W putting mavs behind. Oh well.
It's time to take a lesson and bring it in january - soon we have Mavs and LAL to play

[TJastal]

If the spurs would win nobody would blame Pop for bringing new frontiline to the starting 5.
There was absolutely no energy by the spurs players. And again they blew it on a b2b game where somebody said thay are good
And btw. Raps also wee on a b2b game which shows that other teams can deal with that better then the spurs.
It was great chance for the spurs to get the W putting mavs behind. Oh well.
It's time to take a lesson and bring it in january - soon we have Mavs and LAL to play

If Pop would have suited up, scored 30 points and helped the spurs win the ballgame I guess the point is moot and we're all celebrating.

If Pop used his black magic and called flying pigs out of the sky to divebomb raptor players enough to win the ballgame, we're all celebrating.

If Pop would have .. <insert any idiotic idea here> .. well you get the idea.

This is sound logic your presenting here Polandprzem.

[silverblackfan]

I liked the analysis of the game, for the most part. I thought Tony was on fire and doing his best to keep the team in the game the first quarter, except for his FTs. He missed 5 of 6 to start out, which for some reason causes a chain reaction with the Spurs at the stripe.
I have to say that Hill was there on the defensive end, just offensively quiet.
The team looked disinterested until the 4th quarter except for Bogans, Tony and a underperforming Manu (who has a cold). The free throws killed the game, but at least the defense was there.

[polandprzem]

If Pop would have suited up, scored 30 points and helped the spurs win the ballgame I guess the point is moot and we're all celebrating.

If Pop used his black magic and called flying pigs out of the sky to divebomb raptor players enough to win the ballgame, we're all celebrating.

If Pop would have .. <insert any idiotic idea here> .. well you get the idea.

This is sound logic your presenting here Polandprzem.

The problem was with the players not Pop. they were lacking effort and the shots did not went down.

But it's the old same story. When a team loses - coach loses
When the team wins - players wins

[raspsa]

Timmy coming in cold in the 2nd quarter? I's rather have him start the 2nd half -- at least he's have the benefit of the shoot-around and maybe he'd be loose and in some sort of rhythm.

[polandprzem]

Everybody has their own ideas I guess

[Fabbs]

Obviously, the biggest problem is the 1:31 that Blair came up short of the magical 20 minute mark.

As if continuing to play Blair alongside Timmy Dunks and all the good ramifications that come with it would require some *magical* *interstellar* strategy logic.

Fail. But funny.

[dbestpro]

If Pop wanted to experiement I would have been more understanding of him giving Ian, Marcus and Malik major minutes to see if they had anything to offer. He would have been able to give TD his rest and the loss (maybe we don't lose) would have mean't something.

[Dice]

McDyess has played poorly the last 2 games. He looks tired and his legs are dead. Even I'm frustrated with his play at this point. Hopefully he turns it around soon. He's shown signs of what he's capable of but really hasn't turned in what I'd call a complete game for him yet. There's no way I would have imagined him not being a starter at this point in the season. But not only is Blair playing well but Dice seems like he doesn't want the ball. Need that All-Star break to hurry up and get here.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

The Spurs have been playing really well with Dice coming off the bench and Mason getting more PT. I'd expect Pop to go back to what was working. I think changing the rotation as drastically as he did probably got a lot of folks out of their rythym. Pop probably regrets mixing up the rotations as much as the fans did. This is obviously a team that needs to know what to expect if they're going to play comfortably together.

Nice game thoughts, btw.

[Josepatches_]

Parker didn't have energy in the second half.That's why he didn't shoot more.When he has an off night he still shooting so nobody can stop him if he is at 100% when he is shooting pretty well but he was tired.That's all.

TP had been played all the summer so this season he is far away to be at 100%.We were in a back to back game and he did a big effort in the 1st quarter without Tim.You can expect him to run the court all the game.